


It takes a village to raise a child

by InkstainedEchoes



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: But he learns, Gen, and i dont know how to write, but ill learn too or so help me god, jeralt doesn't know how to dad at first, the mercenaries are probably gonna be a bunch of ocs. i hope you like them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-12-02 00:16:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20946149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkstainedEchoes/pseuds/InkstainedEchoes
Summary: Jeralt Reus Eisner wasn't ready for Byleth's arrival when his wife was here. And he is much less ready for their arrival now that she's not. After realizing that his little child may have something unusual about them, he decides to escape. But there is one problem: how is he supposed to tackle fatherhood? At the very least, he's not alone. Sure, a band of mercenaries might not be the people best equipped to be a family. But they like Byleth, so it's better than nothing.





	It takes a village to raise a child

Garreg Mach, 1159, Wyvern Moon.  
First came his wife’s death.

Then, the child having no heartbeat.

And that was enough.

It was strange how the child had not once cried, despite all the less-than-gentle situations it had to endure. The wails of Rhea reverberating through the walls of Garreg Mach, the numerous checks done by the doctor in the village nearby, the galloping of the horse it was currently riding on along with Jeralt. Then again, Jeralt thought, maybe the child wasn't even a child. Maybe it even wasn't human. But whatever it was, he knew his wife wanted it to live. And that Rhea should not, under any circumstances, have it. 

The time after that fateful day had seemed to blur. What had they decided to name it? Bel… no, Bla… Byleth? Yes, Byleth. That was it. Byleth, the child without a heartbeat, but with a pulse, that had not shown any sign of emotion since it had been born. If it didn't move, Jeralt would have thought it a doll. A cold and incredibly unsettling doll.

Or maybe a corpse would be more appropriate. A small animated corpse strapped to Jeralt's chest, bundled up in infant clothing, one that he didn't want to look at as they made way over to Alliance territory. So what was next? A drink sounded great. But a drunk man was not someone for the task of taking care of a child, and his wife would have hated it anyway. His heart ached everytime he recalled her smile, her gentle hands locking with his. So drinks were a no-go. But he'd need something for income, so he supposed the best thing he knew how to do would suffice. 

Except, how was he supposed to fight with a child on his chest?

First things first, though. Where to go now? Faerghus and Adrestia were the Church’s bootlickers, and additionally, the end of the year was coming, which made Faerghus a frozen hellscape. So they were a no. The Alliance seemed like the logical choice here, so he started galloping towards Deirdriu. Surely the Church’s spies would have a harder time both finding them and navigating through it, so it would buy him time to think what to do before they had to move out again. 

Derdriu, Leicester Alliance. 1159, Red Wolf Moon.

“So, boss. I respect your willingness to keep moving and earning things by doing jobs so soon after… her passing, but…” the mercenary timidly pointed at the sleeping infant on Jeralt’s arms, bringing up the obvious elephant in the room after the entire group had been wondering about it. “What are you gonna do with the kid?” 

The child was two months old, and Jeralt barely let his mercenaries touch them, much less pick them up. Even if his face was always stony, the mercs felt he was merely trying to protect them. And the baby was an oddball, too: it didn’t react to them making funny faces, never cried, barely did… anything at all. Jeralt had said it was probably from lack of real human interaction from having lost their mother at first, but now that Jeralt’s mercenaries were a formal group now, they saw the baby all the time, and still nothing. It’s not that the baby seemed unhappy… It just didn’t seem to feel anything at all! 

“I’m carrying it with me, obviously. I can’t trust just any babysitter with it. And besides, who knows if we’ll return. If I hand it over and die, it’ll just end up in some orphanage of the Church of Seiros. So if that happened, I’d prefer if it just stayed with one of you.” The toughened mercenary gave his flask a swig and then shrugged, making the child stir. The excitement in the mercenaries grew as the child blinked its eyes open, but it died back down as soon as it gave one more of its hundred yard stares and just fell back asleep. 

"Yeah" one mercenary with a bow said. "I don't think someone outside of us could understand this kid."

\---  
The sound of clashing blades and the smell of iron floated in the air, as Jeralt's mercenaries were tasked with driving off a bunch of bandits out of a village in Goneril territory. Holst was off fighting Almyra, as he did, so the militia wasn't available to defend the people. 

Fortunately, the presence of the Blade Breaker alone seemed to dissuade them. Unfortunately, the image of him with a baby strapped to his chest wasn't as intimidating as all his tales. Of course, often the laughter of the thief foolish enough to face Jeralt was often met with a lance to the stomach, splattering blood and guts everywhere he looked, and on himself. 

Once the fight was all over and done, he heard one of the swordsmen laugh. His name was Lennard, and he was as stoic as Jeralt himself, and he didn't get what was so funny. 

"Boss, look at the kid."

Jeralt completely forgot about Byleth on his chest. He looked down, only to see a blood-splattered, slightly pouting baby. 

"Huh, would you look at that. So you can move your face."

**Author's Note:**

> hello this is like my third fic overall. I don't know what i'm doing and english isn't even my first language but if you enjoy and made it here. thank u


End file.
